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Thursday, 19 December 2013

Book Blitz:The Cure by Stephanie Erickson {Excerpt + Giveaway}

Author: Stephanie EricksonTitle: The CurePublication date: November 14th 2013Genres: Dystopia, Young AdultSynopsis“One life will make the difference.” Macey Holsinger has been hearing that promise her whole life. But it hasn’t saved anyone yet, not even her little brother.The disease has claimed countless lives in the last hundred years, and the government is working hard to find a cure through human testing. Testing that has killed nearly as many people as the disease.At sixteen, Macey has better things to think about than saving lives and submitting to any rule other than her parents’. As a budding artist, she has her whole life ahead of her, at least until she faces her own testing.Questions plague Macey. Questions that make everyone else nervous. How can death be justified with more death? What’s the point of all this?Answers evade her until she’s left with only one question: How much will she sacrifice in the name of the cure?

ExcerptBy eight, the party was in full
swing.I was standing at a table near
the dance floor watching the fun when a group of girls from school converged on
me.“Hey, Macey, so what time do you get
your date?” Ariel asked me.I was trying not to think about
it.I glanced at my watch.“8:23.”She looked at one of the other
girls.“When I got my date I was a
wreck.But the message is actually
pretty cool.Once it was over, I wondered
what I was so worked up about.”I knew she was trying to reassure me,
but it wasn’t helping.One of the other
girls, Hannidy, piped up.“What was the
message like?” she asked.She was still
a few months away from getting her date and clearly wasn’t comforted by Ariel’s
sentiment either.“Oh, it was neat.One of those immersion holograms, ya
know?The speaker was in the mountains,
and I swear I could smell the cool, crisp air when the breeze blew across this
field of wild flowers and over a glacial pond.I don’t even know if places like that still exist, but it was exactly
where I wanted to be.”“And what did the speaker say?”
Hannidy persisted.“Well, not much to be honest.Just congratulating me on reaching an age
where I could contribute to the greater good, announced my date, and that was
it.All told, I think it was only about
two minutes long.”I turned to one of the girls, who was
nodding.She’d already gotten her date
as well.“Was it the same for you,
Charlotte?”“Yup.Pretty much.Mine wasn’t in the
mountains though.Mine was in the most
luxurious lobby I’d ever seen.Crystal
chandeliers, stained glass windows, giant marble columns, it was gorgeous.It looked like some place that demanded grand
dresses and dancing.”She smiled as she
recalled the image.I hoped I could look
back on my message with such fondness, and not as the death sentence it might
turn out to be.At 8:23 p.m., Rosie interrupted the
party.The music went quiet, and all
games paused.“An incoming message from
the Facility for Macey.”My parents gathered around me, and
Alex appeared out of nowhere.“Would you
like to see it down here or upstairs?”I looked at all my friends.Some of them looked nervous, but most of them
nodded encouragement at me.“I guess we
can watch it down here.Rosie, go ahead
with it.”I was surrounded by an image of the
beach.Ariel was right.I could just about smell the salt air.Sea gulls screeched and swooped low over the
waves, and sand pipers darted in and out of the surf.I turned around and dunes stretched for miles
in either direction.The hologram was
like nothing I’d ever seen before.It
was so real, and slightly unnerving.Although I knew my parents and Alex
were there watching it with me, I was alone on the beach, save for a woman
standing a short distance from me.The
hologram was made to be a complete experience for each person, so everyone
watching had the same experience.I was
the only one that was alone, though.Everyone else could see me and the woman but no one else at the
party.“Hello, Macey.” she said.She was dressed in a dark suit, her bobbed
brown hair blowing in the ocean breeze.She looked weird in the surroundings.Out of place.I didn’t want her
here, spoiling it.I didn’t respond to her.It was just a hologram, not meant to be
interactive.She continued without
noticing.“As you know, I’m here to
deliver your date.First of all, we at
the Facility would like to congratulate you on reaching an age where you can
fulfill the vows you’ve been making since you were five years old and become a
vital part of finding a cure to the disease.”She paused and looked sympathetically
at me.It was odd.How did they know where I’d be standing, and
how could they program her to do that?I
glanced left and right but couldn’t see my parents.I felt someone grab my hand, but when I
looked down, no one was there.It
squeezed, and I squeezed back.“Now, your date is very
special.”Was this normal?Why was my date special?“It’s the first of its kind.”I narrowed my eyes and watched the hologram
skeptically.It didn’t sound good.“Due to an overwhelming need, the Facility
has had to change its experimentation policies and date assignments moving forward.Macey, you are the first to receive a date
that precedes your twentieth birthday.”I gasped in horror.“Your date is June 30, 2115.”She let it hang there for a
second.“The Facility thanks you for
your contribution, and we look forward to meeting you in person.”The image dissolved, and I was left
in the basement with the shock of knowing I had only two years until my
date.

A low murmur passed over my group of friends.I frantically looked from face to face,
looking for conformation that I’d simply misheard.Pleading silently with someone to tell me
she’d said 2117 and not 2115, they all stared back at me with the same shock I
imagined was on my face, and a few of them had sympathetic, “better you than
me” expressions.

My legs started to tremble.Alex reached out for me and guided me to the
nearest couch.My parents followed, my
mom leaning heavily on Dad.The guests
parted for us and went back to the party, trying to give us our moment.

I looked over at Alex, who’d settled
next to me on the couch.“Well, maybe it
wasn’t such a good idea to watch the message down here.”I smiled weakly, trying to lighten the
mood.Two years.That was only a few months after Alex’s date
and would be right after I graduated from school.If I died during the experiments, I wouldn’t
have the opportunity to get rejected by art schools because I was too much of a
loose cannon.

“It’s a mistake, right?A glitch in the message?Who can we contact at the Facility to get her
actual date?”

My mom asked, grasping at even the tiniest hope.

My dad sprang into action.“Rosie, can you please display the latest
headlines?”

There on the glass coffee table in
front of us were all the headlines of the day.At the top, was the most damning one of all, time stamped from thirty
seconds ago.

FACILITY CHANGES DATING POLICY.

Dad tapped that headline, and the
article opened.

Citing overwhelming need for more volunteers, the Facility has
altered its dating policy moving forward.All new dates will be assigned after the receiver’s eighteenth birthday,
not their twentieth.The first to
receive their new date was Macey Holsinger, who was assigned June 30,
2115.The teen will be eighteen years
and three months old for her first experiment.

A Facility representative issued this statement:

“We want to thank all new volunteers.We hope the young blood will be the key to
finding the cure that much faster.”

Dad closed the article before the
rest of us could finish reading it.“My
baby,” Mom whispered.Dad turned and
held her in his arms.She looked at me
over his shoulder, too horrified to summon even a single tear.

AUTHOR BIOLet's see. What do you want to know about me? I love apocalypse movies like 2012 (which is probably why my first book is sort of apocalyptic), I love to read, I love my fur babies, my husband and my family.I'm a graphic designer by trade, but hoping to some day be able to write full time.Dan, my husband, and I are brand new parents and loving life!As far as writing goes, The Blackout was my first published novel, but I've been writing for quite awhile. I won honorable mention in the 72nd Annual Writer's Digest Competition for a short story junior year of college, so that was...awhile ago anyway. Although I published a scholarly paper senior year, fiction writing has always been my passion. Can't wait to see what's next!Website/Goodreads/Facebook/Twitter/Amazon